Forever New Orleans Police Chief Michelle Woodfork has been doing whatever she wants since her retirement started Saturday. For the first time in 33 years, she didn't have a department-issued firearm. For the first time in some time, she didn't have a work phone.
When Woodfork didn't get the top cop job last year after serving as interim police chief, lots of people started asking her whether she was going to stay and what she might be doing next. At the time, it was her intention to stay — on NOPD's executive leadership team.
The New Orleans Civil Service Commission had other ideas. The commission ruled in December that she couldn't stay — at least, not with the salary she deserved for filling a top-tier role under new NOPD Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.
Lt. Hudson Cutno, assistant NOPD police academy commander, left, talks with former Interim NOPD Police Chief Michelle Woodfork before commencement for Recruit Class #199 at Dillard University on Friday, March 1, 2024. It was Woodfork's last official act before retiring.
People who knew Woodfork started asking her again: What are you going to do? She pondered her options.
When news came that Woodfork opted to retire, she got more questions: What are you going to do NOW?
Her reply was simple: She would spend more time with her parents and her beloved son, Nick, a Holy Cross High School junior looking at college options, including some Ivy League universities.
Yes, people said. But what are YOU going to do?
NOPD Superintendent Michelle Woodfork
Retiring at 53 with an impressive resume presents Woodfork with plenty of time for another chapter, and another career if she wants it.
Even another chief's job.
That could mean leaving New Orleans, however.
Woodfork said she's considering a number of opportunities. Going back to graduate school to earn another degree, maybe even a doctorate. Maybe law school. Teaching at a university could be enticing, she said. Maybe some consulting, using her extensive law enforcement experience, knowledge and skills.
"If I want to work, I can. I don't need to work. I don't need a job," she said. "It feels good. It's comfortable."
Woodfork took me back to her priority: Helping Nick have a great 2024-2025 senior year and helping him navigate college options and getting him off to a good start in college.
She will also have more time for community work now.
I told Woodfork something she already knew: She's qualified and experienced enough to be a police chief elsewhere. But, I added, certainly that's not going to happen, right?
"It's a possibility," she told me as my jaw dropped. "New Orleans is always going to be my home. But it's a possibility that i might look at other states and cities and law enforcement opportunities."
That's after Nick graduates from Holy Cross and after he has started college — in other words, at least a year and a half away.
If a job as police chief opens elsewhere and presents an opportunity that Woodfork pursues, that agency can count on thousands of references from New Orleans.
